PECULIAR PHENOMENON. 
155 
most of which had three or four living young 
ones in their bellies. I believe the fish belongs 
to a genus described by Temminck under the 
name of Ditrema. I also found, as I strolled 
away from the seining party, a singular species 
of Arum, with long curling horns extending from 
its lurid spathes. The natives were just as friendly 
as when I visited the group in 1845. An old 
man with a basket of sea- weed on his back stopped 
me, and would fain persuade me to taste of 
his Laminarian dainty. A little further on, a 
young lad made a friendly advance by biting off a 
portion of lily root and offering me the remainder ; 
while a small boy* brought me wild raspberries 
strung upon a straw. 
On one occasion, while out with my friend 
Buckley in search of adventures, we observed a 
sandy mud-flat in the distance, on the other side 
of which was a breakwater formed of heaped-up 
boulders. On approaching nearer, we were struck 
with a peculiar blue appearance of the sand- 
flat ; which, strange to say, on our arrival sud- 
